The Nazi Hunters

More than seven decades after the end of the Second World War, the era of the Nazi Hunters is drawing to a close. Their saga is finally told in this "deep and sweeping account of a relentless search for justice that began in 1945 and is only now coming to an end" ( The Washington Post ).

After the Nuremberg trials and the start of the Cold War, most of the victors in World War II lost interest in prosecuting Nazi war criminals. "Absorbing" ( Kirkus Reviews ) and "fascinating" ( Library Journal ), The Nazi Hunters focuses on the men and women who refused to allow their crimes to be forgotten.

The Nazi Hunters reveals the experiences of the young American prosecutors in the Nuremberg and Dachau trials, Benjamin Ferencz and William Denson; the Polish investigating judge Jan Sehn, who handled the case of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf H#65533;ss; the Mossad agent Rafi Eitan, who was in charge of the Israeli team that nabbed Eichmann; and Eli Rosenbaum, who sought to expel war criminals who were living in the United States. But some of the Nazi hunters' most controversial actions involved the more ambiguous cases, such as former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim's attempt to cover up his wartime history. Or the fate of concentration camp guards who have lived into their nineties, long past the time when reliable eyewitnesses could be found to pinpoint their exact roles.

The story of the Nazi hunters is coming to a natural end. It was unprecedented in so many ways, especially the degree to which the initial impulse of revenge was transformed into a struggle for justice. The Nazi hunters have transformed our fundamental notions of right and wrong, and Andrew Nagorski's "vivid, reader-friendly account of how justice was done...is comprehensively informative and a highly involving read" ( The Wall Street Journal ).

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One of many books explaining why we prosecuted some war criminals and let so many go. Real world political decisions seem so ridiculous when we aren't the global leaders making them. But faced with the myriad reasons, they have a twisted logic of their own.

Filled with stories that tell the remarkable reality of decisions to prosecute and not prosecute Nazis after WWII ended. Well written, readable and maddening, because so many violent Nazis had to be let go. Heartening because of the heroic persistence of a number of investigators and prosecutors who tracked down some of the worst offenders and treated them justly rather taking revenge.